Piano methods published during the last fifty to one hundred years have generally presented middle C as the first note that students read. Students then usually have learned the so-called “C position” for their fingers. In the majority of such methods students spend a considerable amount of their practice time on pieces in the C position, especially with the right hand (even if the method claims not to use positions). This means that students often learn false concepts, the first of which being that the right hand thumb's “job” on the keyboard is to play middle C, the second (index) finger plays D, the third finger plays E, the fourth (ring) finger plays F, and the fifth (smallest) finger plays G. Many students often don't actually “read” these notes after the first few lessons, but simply push down the finger that is suggested by the note on the staff—so that the note becomes a stimulus for a specific finger to play apart from any thought regarding the letter name of the note or the location of the hand on the keyboard. These associations often remain with the student long after they are no longer playing the easy beginner pieces and inhibit their ability to read since these note-finger associations are somehow more or less permanently fixed in their mind/finger responses to the notes they are seeing. Thus a student who has made these associations will see a D (which some students can no longer confidently name as a D) on a more advanced piece and will inadvertently press the second finger down even when it is not near the D key (perhaps the musical situation would naturally and appropriately lead the fourth finger to play the D). These prior learning methods therefore inadvertently foster playing mistakes for many students.
Also, learning the C position, particularly if the left hand thumb shares the Middle C with the right hand thumb (as in many beginner materials), causes students to falsely conceptualize a vertical mirror arrangement so that the D at the bottom of the Treble Clef will be learned and then the B at the top of the Bass Clef will also be read as D; next, the E on the lowest line of the Treble Clef will also be named when in fact the note is A on the top line of the Bass Clef, etc. This vertical mirror association may relate to the mirrored relationship of the hands/fingers. In addition, since in these older methods students are presented with either positions (usually C, D, E, F G and later G, A, B, C, D), isolated notes, or fragmented positions as in some more recent methods—groups of random notes—say two for the left hand (G and A, for instance) and three for the right hand (D, E, F, for example), the simple and logical alphabetical order of the keys on the keyboard and notes on the staff is not well understood often for years.
Another problem relates to the way rhythm is taught. Rhythm is often presented using counting symbols (“1, 2, 3, 4,” and later “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”) associated with appropriate note values; some systems present words (“piccadilly circus,” for instance, again associated with specific note values) which students are taught to recite rhythmically. Counting symbols are not well explained. Recently, some methods have spaced notes closer together or farther apart according to their relative values in learning pieces. No other type of information is offered to help students conceptualize the proportional divisions of time indicated by the various note values.
Few if any attempts have been made to address these problems effectively because until now these problems have not been precisely identified, understood, or defined. Publishers of piano methods simply are blind to the problems they have been creating for many students for the last century. With regard to rhythm, methods of the prior art typically introduce one type of note, such as a quarter note, with an explanation such as “Count: 1 1 1 1” followed by various numbers of other notes each having the same duration (usually half notes). This approach does nothing to teach rhythm (which results from the juxtaposition of notes having longer and shorter duration). Rhythmic practice is best taught from the first rhythmic exercise by integration at that point of notes having different durations. Furthermore, the use of visual/proportional representations and verbal recitations of measured instructive phrases to facilitate rhythmic conceptualization does not appear to have been included in other known piano instruction methods. Nor do clear explanations of counting symbols appear to have been included in piano methods of the prior art. With regard to pulse, merely reciting 1 2 3 4 or 1 2 3 as done in methods of the prior art is helpful but not always reliable since people can say these numbers at an uneven pace. By contrast, executing and practicing conducting patterns repetitively interspersed with reading and playing music establishes a physical and intellectual understanding of steady, even pulse. Thus, the clear teaching of pulse and rhythm would be best accomplished by (1) rhythmic reading with instructional phrases, (2) conducting various meters, (3) studying proportional graphics associated with various note values and combinations, and (4) clarifying the meaning of counting symbols.
Some piano instruction methods claim to disassociate finger positioning from specific notes, but such systems fail in that regard due to their excessive reliance on practice pieces which nevertheless mandate the use of the Middle C position. Moreover, when such methods require different fingering, they do so with completely different pieces instead of teaching students varied fingering is permissible even while playing the same piece. This preponderance of pieces in the Middle C position together with the lack of alphabetical continuity in the way notes are taught places students at a disadvantage in terms of reading and developing confident keyboard and staff orientation Not only does reliance on the “C” orientation create encumbrances to note-reading development as well as false note/finger associations, the error is often compounded by jumping the student to a “G” position in which students often feel totally confused as the same fingers must now play these new and unfamiliar notes/keys. This disadvantage could be eliminated by teaching students from the beginning (1) to recite and identify as they play all white keys on the piano keyboard in order to establish a clear understanding of the simple repetition of the alphabetical order and arrangement of keys on the entire keyboard so the keyboard is accessible from the beginning rather than seeming an intimidating and obscure mélange of several dozen unknown keys, this being done prior to learning to read notes on the musical staff; (2) to write a few notes from the middle set of seven alphabetical notes before playing them in a piece; and (3) to continue to write and associate individual notes with keys in progressive alphabetical order in the first middle set of seven keys continuing from this to learn notes and keys according to alphabetical sets of seven white keys as they appear on the keyboard both to the right and left of this middle set.